Chapter 2
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“I don’t have money anymore.”
“Hey, I’m just really struggling right now. My husband also lost his job… It’s hard to live these days.”
At a corner table in a café, a woman was bowing her head. By world standards, the woman sitting in front was her mother.
Raised in an orphanage, she first learned of her family’s existence at the age of 17.
One day, my mother came to see me. I still remember the day we first met.
… I don’t know how excited I was then.
‘Maybe she left me for a while because there was a problem.’
That’s what I thought before.
So maybe that’s why she didn’t come back.
And perhaps she missed me, so I thought she must have come to pick me up now that her problem has been solved.
I met my mother after 17 years, and she was kind at first.
My mother said, “Mom is already married, and has children and a husband. It’s because I can’t make ends meet…”
That was all… Just that.
“But I wanted to see you. Being so poor, I didn’t dare to meet you, so I just came now.”
The words
‘I missed you
,’ I loved the word back then.
I worked hard to raise money by working part-time, and then my mom came to see me again.
“Is this all you got?” My mother asked,
“I also need living expenses, so I can’t give you much.”
“Isn’t there really more? When the family is having a hard time, we should help each other. Wouldn’t Mom help you later when you’re having a hard time?”
My mother, whose words that I’m part of her family, with her eyes, fixed on the amount of money in the envelope. The same was true as I grew older.
I asked my mother, who was sitting opposite calmly, “Is that all you have to say to me?”
“What’s wrong with you? Is your work hard? But you’re still young, you can always make money.”
“That money.”
At some point, I realized that the love I had longed for was conditional.
‘Oh, my mom liked me for earning money, not me.’
My only value was because of money. I’ve known about it for a long time, but it wasn’t easy to cut it off.
Because my mother was my only family.
I don’t remember what I said that day.
My last memory was seeing headlights and hearing the shouts of people after an argument with my mother, and frantically leaving the café and being hit by something. I don’t know what happened after that.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a very old, narrow room ceiling that I’d never seen before.
At least it wasn’t the moldy ceiling in the semi-basement room that was prepared after receiving the money from the orphanage.
This place was old but dustless. I meant someone was somehow managing it.
An old bed and a dark room, and an unfamiliar reflection on the window of a room without a mirror.
Purple eyes and fine silver hair that curled down to the waist.
It had such a beautiful appearance that anyone could say it was gorgeous just by looking at it
‘Wow, there are people like this that exist in the world.’
It was fun just looking at the woman’s face.
When she smiled, she looked innocent and pure, and when she stared, it was quite fierce.
‘It looked dreamy but felt real… Isn’t that bad?’
It was only after some time had passed that I felt strange.
I opened the door and glared at the bread and water that someone had put in. When I took a bite of bread, my throat felt stuffy.
Since it doesn’t taste anything, it doesn’t seem like a good place to be.
‘… Is it not a dream, but the other world?’
Even when I recall the last memory when I was running out of the café, this hypothesis was much more plausible.
And after all, I’ve suffered, I turned to this!
As she fills her chagrin and puts battle-stiff bread in her mouth. Suddenly, the door opened and her hand fumbled across the floor.
She asked towards the hand as it gently pulled the finished bowl.
“Hey, is there anyone else here?”
Despite her question, the unknown person closed the door and disappeared without showing their face.
After about a day or so…
“Morgana, Morgana!”
The door, which had not been opened for a while, swung open and two women entered.
“How dare you ask our father such a favor?”
“Morgause, be patient! What are you doing here!”
“Come on, older sister. I’m so ashamed to have the same family name, but you’re really shameless, you have the nerve to ask father like that!”
Only then did Morgana know her name.
At the same time, the two women in front are her half-sisters, Morgause and Elaine.
Morgause shook Elaine’s hand away, wheezing, “You can’t thank him enough for feeding you and giving shelter for you to sleep comfortably. You think you can kick me out because you know how to use some little power?”
Morgana…?Her eyes widened at the familiar name.
‘I can’t believe I’m Morgana. Morgana! What do you mean?!’
Morgana couldn’t answer hastily.
If it wasn’t for the two sisters in front of her, she would have ripped off all her hair, which she praised for being so pretty.
It wasn’t a dream or the afterlife…
I’m Morgana Le Fay, the villain of the romance fantasy novel 〈Who Will Marry the Princess〉, based on King Arthur’s legend.
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〈Who will Marry the Princess〉It was a novel I read whenever I felt empty after sending most of the money to my mother.
A classic war romance fantasy novel in which the villain was executed, and the protagonist wins.
Had I known it would be like this, I should have read a healing movie.
Or a story about a rich protagonist giving everything to an extra person around him?
Unfortunately, however,
‘Fester’
was a common story in which the Hero and Heroine end up winning Excalibur in a relationship they hate, and finally understand each other and fall in love.
Among them, Morgana Le Fay was a villain who died trying to steal the Hero’s sword.
The Duke of Fay’s family descended from a fairy who guarded the lake.
Although she does not directly manage the lake, she had excellent magical powers and healing powers from generations, just like her descendants.
This power was known to be the only one that could heal wounds inflicted with Excalibur.
But for some reason, that power was gradually fading.
The power that remained in Duke Fay, even in the slightest amount, left no trace in the generations of his two daughters.
The only official direct bloodline of Fay was firstborn Elaine and second-born Morgause. Morgana was an illegitimate child brought in from outside.
Avalon valued blood above all else.
This was especially strict with the Fay family, who is said to be of the House of the Lake Fairy.
‘You want to limit the spread of power in your family…?’
The Duke of Fay had no affection for Morgana at all.
During the war between Avalon and Britain in the original story, Morgana cried out for blood ties ahead of her death and begged Duke Fay to help her.
‘The Duke refused bluntly, of course.’
There was an unavoidable reason for him to accept Morgana, even though she’s an ignorant woman who he can’t reveal to the world.
“Are you ignoring me now? Look, you ate all the bread.”
Slap—Morgana’s head turned with a sharp fricative.
‘Oh, isn’t this crossing the line?’
Morgana rubbed her tingling cheek.
She felt a slight scratch on her cheek, wounded by fingernails. She swallowed her breath, showing how much she detests discrimination.
‘Hey, you guys put it there for me to eat, so I ate it! Then, did you leave water for me to drink while staring at the bread? Is the water a western-style dish?’
Oysters are shellfish, but at least they’re meat. What? Did you sprinkle cheese on top or put cream inside?
It’s just white wheat bread, but it’s too much.
‘You shouldn’t touch people when they eat!’
They say that people who campaign using food are the worst in the world.
Morgana in desperation understood those words at this moment.
It was her who had hit Morgana, but Morgause frowned as if she was the one in pain.
“Live as if you were dead, today, and thank our father for what he has done for you, and to live flat on the floor.”
“Why me?”
Morgana swept over her cheek lightly.
Slowly, warm energy lingered and Morgana’s cheek, which had been scratched, had returned to its original state.
Morgana tilted her head and smiled softly and said, “I can’t help it. I have the power of a family.”
“Now— now, with that kind of power…?”
“Don’t you think father considers me important?”
“Who’s your father?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Then pick one out of these, here, there, that. I’ll call him that!” said Morgana.
Morgause shouted, “You— you!”
Her fist quivered as she was speechless, biting her lips tightly.
Morgana Le Fay. The villain in the novel and the illegitimate child of the Fay family.
The novel describes her as follows, 「Morgana Le Fay was the greatest villain of her time.」
(T/N: 누공결- fistula/fester; used as a word implying a worsening state.)